The period from 1939 to 1945 saw some of the most devastating and remarkable events in living memory. Laboring beneath a daily burden of fear, sacrifice, deprivation and uncertainty, soldiers and civilians of all nationalities were driven to extremes of selfless loyalty, dogged determination or bitter cruelty by the demands of a world at war.
This book tells the stories of the men and women who lived and died during the Second World War, from politicians to factory workers, and from High Command to the conscripted men on the front lines. The experience of war is brought to life through a wealth of contemporary documentation, private writings and historical research, whilst the political, military, and historical significance of the war is assessed and examined. From Europe's Western and Eastern Fronts to the war at sea, and from the Pacific to the Mediterranean and North Africa, every fighting front of the Second World War is covered in this truly comprehensive volume.
David Horner is an emeritus professor at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian University, Canberra, where he was previously professor of Australian defence history. A graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, who served as an infantry platoon commander in South Vietnam, Colonel Horner is the author of over thirty books on military history and defence, including
High Command (1982) and
Blamey: The Commander-in-Chief (1998).
Dr Robin Havers is currently President of the George C. Marshall Foundation in Lexington, Virginia. Prior to that he served as Director of National Churchill Museum in Fulton, Missouri and as Senior Lecturer in War Studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He holds degrees from Queen Mary College, University of London, LSE and Pembroke College, Cambridge. He has published a number of articles, and his book,
The Changi Prisoner of War Camp: From Myth to History, was published by Curzon Press in 2002. A former Fulbright Visiting Professor at Westminster College, Missouri, he is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Royal Society for the Arts.
Alastair Finlan is a Professor of War Studies at the Swedish Defence University. He is the author of numerous books on military culture, Special Forces and modern warfare, including
Contemporary Military Strategy and the Global War on Terror: US and UK Armed Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq 2001-2012 (Bloomsbury, 2014).
Mark J Grove has degrees in history from the universities of Cardiff and Aberystwyth, and is now Senior Lecturer in the Department of Strategic Studies and International Affairs, Britannia Royal Naval College, and lectures part time in the Department of Politics, University of Plymouth. He has a particular interest in amphibious warfare and contributed a chapter to Till, Farrell and Grove (eds.)
Amphibious Operation (Strategic and Combat Studies Institute, Camberley, 11997). He is currently completing an article on amphibious operations during the Russo-Japanese War, and has started work on a PhD project concerned with Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay.
Philip D. Grove BSc(Econ), MSc(Econ), FHEA has taught Strategic Studies at Britannia Royal Naval College since January 1993, becoming Head of Department in March 2004. Upon the academic faculty's transfer to the University of Plymouth in 2008 he became Subject Matter Expert in Strategic Studies. In 2014 he was appointed Head of Maritime Aviation Studies in the new Dartmouth Security & Seapower Centre.
Alongside teaching at BRNC he has taught at various Royal Navy establishments, ships and Fleet Air Arm squadrons. From 1996–2013 he also taught at Plymouth University on modules including Contemporary History, International Relations, Foreign Policy and Maritime Power.
Besides delivering numerous conference and seminar papers he has also published widely on naval matters including the forthcoming From Actium to the Falklands: How Navies Win Wars (Amberley Publishing, 2018); the chapters 'Post Cold War Naval Operations' and 'Naval Manning in the Post Cold War World' in Navies in the 21st Century (Seaforth Publishing, 2016); The Royal Navy: A History Since 1900 with Duncan Redford (I B Tauris, 2014); Turning the Tide: The Battles of Coral Sea and Midway (University of Plymouth,2013); 'The Lofoton and Vaagso Raids', inTristan Lovering ed., A Collected History of Amphibious Operations (Seaforth 2007); 'Falklands Conflict 1982 – The AirWar a New Appraisal', in Stephen Badsey et al., The Falklands Conflict Twenty Years On: Lessons for the Future (Frank Cass, 2005); and The Battle of Midway (Brassey's, 2004).
